Patrol

Families Gather for Two Lawmen Wounded in West Memphis Shootout

In a sea of concerned faces at the Regional Medical Center at Memphis on Thursday, Shannon Busby's expression of relief stood out.

Dick Busby, sheriff of Crittenden County, Ark., and her husband of 55 years, had been shot in the shoulder during the shootout in the West Memphis Walmart parking lot.

Deputy Chief W.A. Wren, was shot three times in the stomach.

Two West Memphis police officers -- Brandon Paudert, son of Chief Bob Paudert, and Bill Evans -- were shot and killed after a traffic stop that began a day of violence in the small city on the Arkansas side of the Mississippi River.

But Shannon Busby had already been in twice to see her husband, who was in stable condition with a broken shoulder and a bruised spleen.

Wren's situation was more challenging, but after several hours of surgery, he was upgraded from critical to serious condition late Thursday.

"It's been a hard day for us," said Crittenden County Sheriff's spokesman Thomas Martin.

A former police officer—now an elected official with the Missouri House of Representatives—wants to force any city with a population of 5,000 or fewer inhabitants, with an area of less than two square miles, to disband its police department and contract for law enforcement services with either the county police department or a larger neighboring city.